The invention relates to an end effector for an industrial manipulator, particularly those manipulators employed in the area of circuit board assembly.
It is a general practice to assemble electrical components of low production volume, high component density, printed circuit boards by hand. It is an industry wide objective to introduce computer controlled robotic manipulators into the aforedescribed manufacture of circuit boards. Such robotic manipulators provide more accurate assembly and production flexibility which will ultimately lower the costs of manufacturing specialized circuit board assemblies.
A common limitation encountered in the use of industrial manipulators, however, is the ability of the robot to handle and insert component parts, particularly multi-lead components. Another difficulty encountered in printed circuit board assembly is the insertion of compliant parts into the circuit board. In the automated handling of rigid parts, knowledge of the shape of each part is sufficient to predict the positions of all aspects of the part. Therefore, once the part is acquired in a known orientation, repositioning the acquired part for assembly is a straightforward task. Compliant parts, such as resistors, transistors and the like, are more difficult to handle in assembly operation since the component leads can deform during handling and under the forces applied during assembly.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an end effector for an industrial manipulator which grasps the body of a multi-lead component and manipulates the compliant leads of the component.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a multi-lead component gripper which has a fixed guide means for orienting the component and its leads.